Barcelona is one hot, sexy, incredible city, filled with amazing culture, parties, sunshine, beaches and beautiful people. I’ve visited the Catalan capital five times in the past decade – so it’s clearly one of my favourites. I’ve put together my…
When people ask me about my favourite gluten-free cities, Barcelona is very high on my list. Coming from London, where gluten-free options are aplenty, I have very high expectations but Barcelona doesn’t disappoint. From banging breakfasts through to late night…
Open since 2004, the Market Hotel Barcelona is a charming boutique hotel in the city’s Sant Antoni district. Part of the flourishing Andilana Group (who own 30 restaurants and 6 hotels across Spain, France and Madagascar), their name is synonymous with…
When I first visited over a decade ago, Barcelona‘s brunch scene was only just emerging and cafes with a tasty breakfast menu were hard to find. Flash forward 10 years and I would now rate this city as one of…
Considered to be the biggest LGBT+ Pride celebration in the Mediterranean, with over 200,000 people taking part in the celebrations each year, Barcelona Pride is a wonderful time to visit the city. This cosmopolitan beach city hosts one of the…
Barcelona! Lovely Barcelona: it isn’t a city that changes quickly. I always feel like it’s exactly as I left it on my last visit, which is great because I LOVE this place. I don’t want it to change! So here…
Situated in central El Raval, the Leonardo Hotel Barcelona Las Ramblas opened in June 2016 making it the latest addition to the Leonardo hotel group. The 111 rooms are available in four categories – Economy, Comfort, Superior and Deluxe –…
“It looks like one of the seven hills of San Francisco,” I exhaled as we stood at the western entrance to Park Güell. The plan was to have a romantic sunset picnic at Barcelona’s iconic municipal garden, but now I…
Discover more about Barcelona on my Pinterest board
What's on in Barcelona
Learn Spanish
Gluten-free Barcelona
Why you will love Barcelona
Things to watch out for in Barcelona
Discover more about Barcelona on my Pinterest board
What's on in Barcelona
Here are some good sites for finding out about gigs, parties and events in Barcelona:
Learn Spanish
Duolingo is a fantastic free app for learning languages. Just 5 minutes a day is all it takes to understand the basics before your travel. Click here to see their Spanish course.
Gluten-free Barcelona
Use this handy Spanish restaurant card by Coeliac Travel when querying gluten-free options on a menu. Click the image to visit their website.
Why you will love Barcelona
I have to limit myself to visiting Barcelona every second summer because I would never go anywhere else! The Catalan capital feels like Sydney in Europe - the perfect example of a seaside city: big but not too crowded (by a Londoner’s standards anyway), spreading out of the central area to a number of really interesting districts, such as up-and-coming Poble-Sec, lefty heaven Gràcia and Dalston-like El Raval (which is where I prefer to stay). In the summer it is hot and cheerful, saturated with colour and sunshine. It would be hard to ever grow bored of this beautiful city.
Things to watch out for in Barcelona
Airports - be careful to check which airport your flight lands at before you book. The main airport, Barcelona International Airport (or El Prat, airport code: BCN), is only 13 km south-west of the city centre and is the best option. Some budget airlines like Ryan Air don't always fly to this airport but use Girona (airport code: GRO) or Reus (airport code: REU), which are both over 100km from the city and can add greatly to the time and cost of your trip.
Pickpockets - Apparently, Barcelona is pickpocket capital of the world - and spending a day of your holiday at the police station is not much fun. My recent trip saw me targeted 3 times by thieves who managed to open my bags in public. So make sure you bring a day bag with inaccessible pockets!
Las Rambla – stretching from Plaça de Catalunya down to the sea, this is tourist central and should be avoided at all cost. It is swarming with people and terrible microwaved paella cafes, making it a pretty horrible experience of the capital and total pick-pocket central.
No Uber - yup, it is currently banned but the taxi's in the city are much more affordable than say London or Paris, so it's not that different/expensive to use a local service.
